School of Nursing and
Health Sciences
Prerequisite/Syllabus Review Process
The graduate programs in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences accept prerequisite courses from any
regionally accredited U.S. institution and from post-secondary institutions abroad that are recognized by the
Ministry of Education in the home country, as long as the course(s) meet the following basic requirements:
• Full Semester in Length*
• Credits/units assigned to each course (We do not accept coursework without an
assigned credit/ unit value, unless the institution uses a noncredit system)
• Graded (We do not accept pass/fail or audited courses, unless an institution uses
evaluations and not grades/marks)
• The topics covered in the course must meet our content requirement
In order for us to review coursework please send an email** to snhs@simmons.edu or call our office at
617-521-2605 with the following:
Course number, course name, institution name, term/year taken (to be taken), indicate if the course had
(will have) a lab, credit amount awarded to the course, if the course was offered online, what prerequisite
course you would like to use this course for, and what program you are interested in.
Example:
Chemistry 101: General Chemistry I, College ABCD, spring 2012, lab, not online, 4 credits, Inorganic Chemistry,
Direct Entry Program.
We will use this information and check our records. If we have reviewed the course in the past we will notify
you, via phone or email, if the course will/will not meet our prerequisite requirements. Please remember that
course titles, numbers and content can change from year to year.
If we cannot approve the course, we will need to receive a course syllabus, not a course description. A syllabus
would include text books(s) used, type of assignments, kind and type of exams etc. We will notify you if a
syllabus is needed. You will need to fill out a syllabus data form for each syllabus submitted for review. The
syllabi and forms can be sent via email (as an attachment), by mail, or by fax at 617-521-3137. Please allow at
least 15 business days for a syllabus review. We cannot determine if a course meets our requirements the day
before you need to register for a course.
* This reflects one half of an academic year. A semester is usually 42 hours of in-class attendance. If an applicant has taken two
(2) quarters or two trimesters of a particular prerequisite requirement it will fulfill one (1) semester. In order to fulfill the two
semester prerequisite requirements an applicant would need to take three (3) quarters or three (3) trimester courses.
**It is recommended that you request a syllabus review via email so that you will have written documentation regarding the
status of your prerequisite coursework.
Simmons College
School of Nursing and Health Sciences
300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
www.simmons.edu/snhs
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
617-521-2605
617-521-3137
snhs@simmons.edu
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